Bible 101 - Acts 11-13:17

Presented July 17, 2006 by Phyllis Gilbert

Review: With the conversion of Saul (whom we know as Paul), the history of the church is forever changed. Until Acts 9, our focus had been on the apostles - those familiar names like Peter, John, and James who'd been with Jesus from the beginning. Following their baptism in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, it is their witness in Jerusalem which brings hundreds to belief in Jesus as the Messiah. And until Stephen's death, all the converts were Jews. And then, with a greater determination to wipe out the infant church, Pharisees and others zealous to preserve the law and OT Judaism, clamped down on believers. And so they fled to other parts of Judea and Samaria, and even to Gentile areas. As a result, the Gospel spread. Remember what Peter and John had told the Sanhedrin? "We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20), they said, when told to stop preaching and doing miracles in Jesus' name. Others whose lives have been transformed are equally fervent in their witness.

Peter and Phillip: In ch. 8, we read of Phillip (one of the 7 chosen to administer the Jerusalem food program) coming upon an Ethiopian returning to his country. The man was reading Isaiah's prophecy and when Phillip asked him if he understood what he was reading, he asked for help; Phillip interpreted the scripture as having been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The man not only became a believer, but was baptized, and then went on his way. Phillip, too, went on his way and spread the Gospel. Meanwhile, a Roman centurion in Caesarea had a vision in which he was told to send for Peter, then in Joppa. At about the same time, Peter, too, had a vision. But his was quite different: a sheet was lowered from heaven, loaded with animals of all types. A voice told him to "kill and eat," but Peter refused, saying he'd never eaten any unclean food in his life. The voice said "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." Peter was confused when the vision ceased, but not for long: a knock at the door, voices, and Peter is asked to go with messengers back to Caesarea. There Peter finds a crowd at the Roman centurion's house, and he puts together the two visions: Cornelius (the centurion) had been told by God to send for Peter; Peter had been told by God to go wto him. And though Cornelius is a Gentile ("unclean" under the law), Peter was to enter his house and minister to him. And Peter obeyed; all of Cornelius's house and friends believed in Jesus, the Holy Spirit confirming their conversion with a baptism just like that of previous converts. And now Peter is in Jerusalem.

Acts 11: The apostles or elder statesmen of the church have remained in Jerusalem, and they call Peter to account for the recent events in Caesarea. Peter explains at length what happened, and they praise God that "God has granted even Gentiles repentance unto life." (11:18). We, too, should be grateful that this did not cause a schism in the early church. The leaders were open to the leading of the Holy Spirit and we are converts because they obeyed God.

Acts 11:19: Luke provides a brief summary of the spread of the Gospel to Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. In the latter large Roman city, the Gospel went not only to Jews, but to Gentiles. Again, the Jerusalem elders hear of this "great number of believers" and they send Barnabas (the Son of Encouragement we met in ch. 4 and 9), to observe what's happening and to encourage the converts as only he can. He does so, and more are brought to belief in Christ. Then Barnabas, remembering that Saul's hometown was Tarsus, went to find him. It's now about 10 years after Jesus' death and resurrection; Saul was converted in 33 to 35 A.D., he's been preaching and learning. Recall that immediately after his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road, he spent three days blind (but mentally sorting through all he'd learned in the OT that pointed to the Messiah), then was healed, baptized in the Holy Spirit and began to preach. We're told in Gal. 1 that he spent three years in Arabia being taught by Jesus himself; he went to Jerusalem, and for the last few years has been in Tarsus. We can be sure Saul/Paul was not silent during that time. Barnabas locates Saul and says "we have a job to do in Antioch," and Saul goes back with him. They spend a year preaching and teaching in the city. "The disciples [followers of Christ] were first called Christians at Antioch," v. 26 tells us.

Acts 11:37: Prophets from Jerusalem went to Antioch; it was a hotbed of evangelism, and many were drawn to it. Agabas was one of these prophets (one who speaks for God; and in the NT, it's one of the Holy Spirit's gifts to believers; see I. Cor 12:27-30). He predicted a widespread famine would overtake the Roman world, and Luke adds that it did during the rule of Claudius, emperor from 41-54 A.D. In response to this prophecy, the believers in Antioch collected funds to take to those in need in Jerusalem. Saul and Barnabas delivered their gifts.

Acts 12: Herod (known as Agrippa I, he died in 44 A.D.; he was one of the many Herods who ruled under Roman supervision before and after Jesus' life in Israel) arrested some Jerusalem believers as a means of harrassing them. And he also had James, the brother of John, put to death by cutting off his head. James, then, becomes the first of the remaining 11 original disciples to die for the sake of the Gospel. Herod did all this during the Passover season when Jerusalem was especially crowded with pilgrims. His acts of persecution pleased the Jewish leaders, and Herod, ever the politician trying to keep a lid on things in the city, figured if one martyr was good, two or three more would be even better. And so he arrested Peter. Peter was no stranger to jail; he'd been arrested by the Sanhedrin twice, and had escaped from prison with an angel's help. Herod planned to put Peter on public trial following Passover, and so chained him between two soldiers. Peter, at peace with God and knowing God had rescued him once before, sleeps soundly. An angel comes to the prison, wakes Peter, tells him to dress (the chains have fallen away), and leads him out through several gates which open before them. Peter, sure it's a dream, isn't aware of what's happened until the angel leaves him on the street. Now wide awake, Peter runs to a believer's house - that of Mary, Mark's mother. There believers were praying for Peter. He interrupted their prayer session by banging on the gate, and a servant named Rhoda went to answer the knock, and was so surprised to see Peter, that she ran back to the house, saying "It's Peter." The gate was still locked, so he knocked again. Remember, they're praying for Peter's release, and yet, to Rhoda they say, "we don't believe it." But Peter, by now looking over his shoulder for guards, knocks louder, and finally, someone lets him in. The rejoicing gets loud, and Peter tells them to quiet down as he tells them of the miracle that had gotten him out of prison. He then says "Tell James and the brothers about this," and then he left town. This James was the brother of Jesus, now one of the elders of the church, and from Peter's message, we can conclude he was a leader.

Acts 12:18: "In the morning there was no small commotion," Luke says. No kidding!! Herod is deprived of his prisoner, his trial, and his second martyr. After interrogating the guards about what happened, he's displeased with their answers, and executes them. Herod then left for Caesarea, a port city which he liked much better than Jerusalem. There he appeared in a silver robe before a great crowd celebrating one of the emperor's feast days. The sun caught his robe and made him appear supernatural and the people said "he's a god and not a man." God disapproved of Herod's accepting the people's acclamation of him as a god, and struck him with a painful disease (Luke says "he was eaten by worms") that day; five days later he was dead. And then we read, "But the word of God continued to increase and spread." Herod wasn't going to stop the Gospel's movement any more than the Sanhedrin had.

Acts 12:25: And now a transition: "When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission [taking the gifts to the church there], they returned from Jerusalem taking with them John, also called Mark." They're back in Antioch, and a new chapter in church history is about to begin. And because Saul will be mainly in the Gentile world from now on, we'll know him as Paul. (Saul is his Hebrew name and Paul his Greek name.)

Acts 13:1-3: We're going to see that the church at Antioch becomes the "mother church" of the Gentile world. Whereas Jerusalem has been the headquarters of the infant church comprised of Jews who believed in Jesus as Messiah - and will continue to be a major center for the apostles - we've also seen the Gospel's spread through those early Jewish converts to Samaria, Judea and Antioch. The growing church at Antioch, where Paul and Barnabas spent a year teaching and preaching, included "prophets and teachers." These two roles were significant to church growth: the prophets spoke for God and the teachers taught God's word. And those gifts of prophecy and teaching (along with evangelizing and pastoring) are listed in Ephesians 4:11-13 as gifts of the Spirit "to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." In Acts 13, those prophets and teachers are listed: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen and Saul. Here they are, five men, gathered for fasting, prayer, worship and fellowship, united in faith and purpose. They're a disparate group: Saul/Paul the "Hebrew of Hebrews," a Pharisee, converted in a dramatic way on the Road to Damascus 14 years before; Barnabas, son of Encouragement, who'd been with the apostles in Jerusalem from the start, and whose role had been to visit new converts to teach and mentor them; Simeon called Niger was probably from N. Africa, as was Lucius; Manaen, we're told, was brought up with Herod either as a friend in court or a foster brother. What a mix! And yet together, they're praying when the Holy Spirit speaks through one of them and says "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." They continue to pray and fast, and then, in obedience to the Holy Spirit's revelation, they put their hands on them by way of commissioning them, and send them off. This is 46 A.D., and it is the beginning of what we know as Paul's first missionary trip. We'll read about it in detail next week.

What we've learned about the church: It's been about 14 years since Jesus' death and resurrection, and his commissioning of the church to "go into all the world and make disciples." From Jerusalem, where the Holy Spirit fell on Pentecost and set the disciples and apostles on fire, the Gospel has gone on the legs of converts and through their voices to thousands of people, living in what we know as Israel and its environs. How? Through preaching and teaching. How have disciples been made? Through teaching, prayer and fellowship. Remember Acts 2:42: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." The foundation of the church was laid following Pentecost; it was instituted by Jesus when he died, rose again and then said to those who'd been eye-witnesses of his entire ministry and post-resurrection teaching that they were to take what they had learned to others: "beginning in Jerusalem, to Judea, Samaria , and the ends of the earth." Jesus taught them and he expected them to teach others; this they are doing. They're also praying (as he taught them), staying in fellowship (a church family, the body of Christ meets together, eats together, encourages each other), remembering Jesus' death and resurrection in Holy Communion, and study. Their study focuses on the Hebrew scriptures, which they have in writing, and the apostles' teaching about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus - and how Jesus fulfilled the OT prophecies. The church is growing ("And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved" Acts 2:47) because they are faithful to what Jesus told them to do. But notice the follow-up: Once a group of converts has been identified (as in Samaria, Acts 8; Caesarea, Acts 10), an apostle is sent from Jerusalem to confirm their faith as genuine. He prays for them and the Holy Spirit baptism is heavenly confirmation. Notice, too, that in Acts 6, when the apostles were beseiged with complaints about the "food program," they prayed and proposed a solution which others agreed was practical and God-sent. They appointed seven men (including Stephen and Philip of whom we know much more) to take care of administering the distribution of food. Offices within the church are being identified: the apostles are called to teach and preach; the men to whom the administering of food was delegated are serving God in a different, but wholly necessary, way. They're known as deacons. And the qualifications of the men appointed to the various offices are clearly outlined: they were to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. Prayer precedes their appointment; the church lays hands on them to commission them, giving them authority to act in the name of the church, and of Jesus, its foundation. The Holy Spirit is guiding, equipping, motivating and enabling the work. And as it spreads, this system of praying for guidance, obeying the guidance given, and then doing the work directed by the Spirit continues. We saw this in the church at Antioch in their obedience to the Spirit to send Paul and Barnabas, and in this pair's obedience to be sent.

Pastoral guidance: Paul tells Timothy, his son in the faith, a great deal about church administration in his "pastoral letters," I and II Timothy. For eamplePaul tells him that a "church overseer" or elder, aspires to a "noble task." That is, it is one that must be taken seriously. Further, this man must be: "above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkeness, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. He must not be a recent convert. . . He must also have a good reputation with outsiders. . . Deacons likewise are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain. They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. They must first be tested, and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons" (I Tim 3:1-10). Paul writes these letters in about 63 and 67 A.D., at the end of his life. He's learned a lot; and he passes on what he's learned to Timothy and to us. The basic principles Paul outlines here were followed by faith and by the Holy Spirit's guidance, by the earliest church fathers.

Next time: We'll get into Paul and Barnabas's trip in detail.

Homework for those who want to go deeper:

Let's close in prayer.